YOUR APHASIA STRIKES A BARGAIN WITH THE BARTER YARDIE: I didn't post the video of LA reporter Serene Branson being stricken suddenly with neologistic aphasia before last night's Grammies because it's scary, not funny (I'm guessing that's also why others around here didn't post it). And I assumed, like apparently everybody else, that she had an on-air stroke. CBS2 LA now says no stroke, and that after getting an all-clear from paramedics on site, the only prescription was to have somebody else drive her home, where she now says she's feeling fine.
Really? ENotes, which apparently is an online nurses' reference with excellent Google search optimization, lists the principal non-stroke causes of aphasia as "tumor, dementia, trauma, anoxic events (lack of oxygen), and infections affecting the left cerebral hemisphere," roughly corresponding, in my inexpert opinion, to prescriptions of "see a doctor, see a doctor, see a doctor, open your air passages and then see a doctor, and see a doctor." Fainting on camera is embarrassing but potentially trivial; I can't think of an innocuous explanation for losing the use of expressive language, even temporarily. So I hope Serene Branson sees a doctor, gets the best medical care available, and never has this happen again.
I would hate to become unable to remember neologisms like premose and nontroversy.
ReplyDeleteNonflict is the one at our house -- when the conflict in a TV show or movie is the kind of thing that would only happen on a TV show that needs some kind of plot. Basically, everything that ever happened in Entourage is a nonflict.
ReplyDeleteAnd nontroversy -- if not inherently clear -- refers to anything which the media deems "controversial" but isn't in fact. Ricky Gervais's GG monologue was a nontroversy.
ReplyDeleteSomething like this happened to me once in college (note, haven't watched the Video yet, going off the description). I was tired and a bit sick (but not bedridden), and I was trying to pronounce a challenging word. And then, for the next minute or two I simply could not express myself coherently. My roommate started to get concerned, but then I was able to get some short simple words out, and then boom, I felt fine. Only happened the once. Never understood why it happened, but that's why I knew the term aphasia.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I was so excited that I was going to get a Mike Doughty related post from the title. Good post, but I can't help but feel cheated.
ReplyDeleteNot me, now I finally know that lyric.
ReplyDeleteIt still doesn't make any sense, though.
Amen to the post, Isaac. That video is chilling.
ReplyDeleteIt's a perfect lyric, because it sounds like aphasia. The words sound like recognizable sounds but they don't make sense together. They're more important for the sound than for the meaning. Actually, in that sense they're a precursor to the spoken-word bridge on Grey Ghost from Smofe + Smang.
ReplyDeleteI know my mom has experienced episodes of aphasia in relation to pretty severe migraine headaches (along with visual disturbances and vomiting), so I suppose it's possible that's what happened here. (I haven't watched the video, though.)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your mom has excellent doctors who have been through every possibility, so this presumably does not apply to her, but: aphasia = worried; aphasia + severe migraines + visual disturbances + vomiting = much more worried.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for not posting the video. My dad suffered major aphasia after a hemorrhagic stroke in 1994, and watching Serene Branson was terrifying. I hope she's OK.
ReplyDeleteI mean fake-word bridge, duh.
ReplyDeleteI heard the description of the video, and thought back to one of the worst nights of my life. My wife and I were going out to celebrate my passing the CA Bar, and as we are walking out of the door, she's unable to form complete sentences, using nonsense words. It was terrifying, and I took her to the hospital. A few months later, she was diagnosed with M.S.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly with Isaac that she needs to see a doctor, because that doesn't just happen.
Ditto - I was glad to hear she didn't have a stroke, but that was really scary. And she looks terrified on the video - she knows she's not saying what she wants to say. I, too, hope she sees a doctor immediately.
ReplyDeleteAphasia is very common in migraines. I get migraines that look like strokes--as in, half of my body goes numb, I have aphasia and I have visual disturbances (the migraine aura). This is all because of the way migraines screw with the brain. So, scary, yes. Frustrating, insanely so. Worrisome, not as much anymore. Oliver Sacks has a great book about it.
ReplyDeleteShe definitely was freaked out the first couple of times it happened, but like you said, she's pretty much run the testing gamut re: other possibilities. As Kate says below (or above, depending upon where this comment ends up) experiencing these symptoms in connection with a severe migraine is not as unusual as you might think. My sister and I have both had migraines with vomiting and seeing spots/heat waves, but never the aphasia or temporary loss of vision, like my mom.
ReplyDelete